Smiling Again
by TheRoseShadow21
Summary: Follow up to "Still Here"


**This is the follow –up to "Still here". I know at the end of that story that I said that this story would be 15yrs after "Still Here" but now it will be 21yrs. You'll understand why when the story starts.**

**ENJOY!**

The teenager pulled a face, looking down at the blank sheet which was supposed to be her homework. All she had written down so far was what characters her name was written in. But she had no idea why those characters were used.  
>She sighed , and twirled a random strand of black hair around her finger , got up , and went to find her dad.<p>

The house was quiet. Her mum had gone to work, and her younger brothers, Junichi and Natsuya had gone to their Saturday club. As for her dad, there was no doubt he was probably in the shed, making yet another sculpture. Her dad was really good at that-in fact he taught the subject at a local college 3 days per week. Picking up the sheet of paper and her starry pen , she left her colourful bedroom and walked downstairs.

Once she reached the back garden, which was no more than a large lawn with red , yellow and blue flowers of all types planted at the borders ,a swing set in the middle of it and her dad's shed in the back corner, she broke into a run. She loved this garden. But she loved the shed even more.

The door was open. She went in.

"Dad?"

Her dad, in his mid/late thirties was sitting at the work table, making yet another sculpture. This one seemed to be of a person sitting down, Legs outstretched. He didn't hear her.

"Dad!"

He turned, hearing her this time.

"Oh, hey Meisa. The boys gone already?" His light brown eyes, which matched her own looked sad , although he smiled in his rather cute-teenagerish (even though he was old according to her AND a dad)-way. She knew why. Sort of. It was late April. Her dad always got quieter and sadder at this time of year. All her mum would tell her about it was that in the past, it had been worse. She also knew it had something to do with the events of 21 years ago, when her dad was 15 and in middle school. Events in a small town that had rocked it. For now , she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"2 hours ago. Who's that?" She pulled up a chair , sat down on it , smoothing her knee length red skirt down.

"Oh, her? Just an idea based on something I saw a long time ago. When it is done , she'll have wings."

"Sweet. "

They sat in silence a while , Meisa watching her dad continue moulding the girl. She saw the hair grow. A short , thick bob.

"What does my name mean?"

"Huh?" her dad paused. Put down his tool.

"Crazy literature teacher, theme on identity. Our homework is to write about our names and where they came from. Except I don't know. "

"Did you ask mum?"

Meisa facepalmed.

"DAD!"

"What?"

"When I did that, she said that I had to ask you!"

To his credit, he looked sheepish.

"Well. Where to start?" His thoughtful face went on.

_(("Hey, you. What's your name?"  
>The girl paused .He could see her hand grip the doll tighter. An eternity of silence :<br>"….Misaki."  
>With that she continued walking, as though nothing had happened))<em>

"How did this Mei have her name written then?" Meisa was curious to know. Her dad had occasionally talked about some of the people in his old class. But never anyone by the name of Mei Misaki.

"With the same characters as the word himei (scream) and kyoumei (resonance)."

Meisa grinned. This was the same as how the "Mei" of her name was written. The "Sa" part of her name was written with the characters used in the words tsubasa (wings) and sasayaki (whisper).

Then she asked the question that was rather….delicate.

"Was she one of the ones who died 21 years ago?"

Her father's face clouded .The light that gave him that look of happiness and youth disappeared .Meisa kicked her self mentally.

"Sorry…"

"Nah, it's all right." The cloud cleared. "She was. But she was also a good friend of mine. A very special friend."

She detected the faint tone of affection in his voice. She gave her dad a sideways look.

"Reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly? JUST a friend? If she was JUST a friend, was she a better friend than that weirdo who calls you "Sakaki" even now?"

Her father blushed. She giggled.

_((Kouichi looked up, noticed that it was raining buckets. Or rather, noticed that he was now soaked. So was Mei, and her pretty blue knee length , for some reason, she looked prettier soaked, like some kind of water spirit.  
>Then he sneezed.<em>

"_Ah crap," He said, scratching his head and looking sheepish "This can't be good for my lungs. I'd better get home then, Misaki. See Y-"_

"_My house is nearer. You can dry up and wait out the rain there, if you like."))_

"Dad? DAD!"

He shook his head as though coming out of a memory.

"Ah, sorry, I was just thinking. "

"About Mei Misaki?" Her voice was teasing. Her father's response was to narrow his eyes at her. Meisa just laughed.

"Well?"

Another silence fell. Meisa got up, went and looked out of the window, staring briefly at the garden. She looked over her shoulder at her father. He was working on the sculpture again, almost hunched over. She couldn't see his expression from here.

"Any biscuits in the cupboard?"

"Yeah." He didn't even pause. Meisa went over to the cupboard. It had a whole lot of random things in there, including a constant biscuit supply. That was just on the one side though. The other she never opened. Her dad had clearly forbid her and her brothers to look in there.

She opened the cupboard.

"Oops." She muttered under her breath upon realising it was the wrong one. She moved to close it when she noticed what was inside.

A figure. And a box.

Curious, she pulled the figure out. It was a doll, with a messy fringe that covered one eye , the hair halfway between the chin and shoulders. It was wearing an off-the shoulder dark blue dress. She lifted the fringe up . the left eye was green.

"Dad? What's this?"

He turned. His face looked very, very sad.

"it looks like -san."

Meisa was incredulous

"Mismatched eyes?"

"On her, the green one was a fake. A doll eye. She lost that real eye when she was eye could see the dead."

Her father didn't need to say anything else. She already knew why that detail was important. The large amount of deaths had made newspapers. And sometimes, he had told them a few things himself, disguising it as a fictional horror story-Meisa had listened, since she too had a love of horror.

"She disappeared, after I killed the extra. She was angry….I shouldn't have come , she told me ,….she wanted me to stay away so she could do it and then I wouldn't even remember having known that person and then losing them again…."

_(("I told you to stay away." Her face set in anger.  
>He was shaking, couldn't do anything.<br>"Mei-san." He was shaking, shocked at what he had done. But that didn't stop him from noticing her crying.  
>"If you…if you hadn't been my friend, Kouichi-san, then it wouldn't matter…it wouldn't matter…but…."With each hysterical word, she stepped closer to him.<br>The world stopped))_

"That's sad…Why did you lock the doll away then?She's so dusty."  
>"Well….."<p>

_(("Kouichi!KOUICHI!""  
>His father's voice.<br>"How did dad find me?" he wondered. He turned to the direction of the voice. His father and a policeman pushed through the crowd of shoppers and tourists to get to him.  
>Kouichi opened the zip of the backpack he was holding in his hands, and looked in.<br>"It's Ok," he whispered "its ok, Mei-san"))_

Her father gave a watery smile

"Don't worry about it." He looked at the doll with sad eyes "She used to smile the same way Mei did , that doll…"

"He looked up at Meisa

"Want to see the photos? They are in the box."

A few hours later

"MUM!Natsuya keeps jumping on me !I'm trying to watch TV!" Meisa pushed her 10 year old brother away from him.  
>her mother , a woman with long black hair and very grey eyes came into the room.<p>

"Natsuya , stop it. Meisa , its' time for dinner anyway."

"Cool." Meisa got up off the sofa. Natsuya chased 8 year old Junichi out of the room. Meisa lingered ,went up to the showcase and looked in.

On the bottom shelf, a doll with black hair, a red eye, a green eye and an off-the shoulder dark blue dress sat. This doll held a picture in one hand , which showed a girl and a boy smiling into the camera. Kouichi Sakakibara and Mei Misaki . Her father and one of his most special friends. A friend who was Meisa's name sake.  
>The doll, now out in the open , looked to be smiling again.<br>Perhaps this meant, that somewhere in the afterlife, Mei Misaki was smiling too.

**There that is finished. I will definitely NEVER EVER do anymore stories based on this theory, primarily because the wish for Mei and Sakaki alive did come true in the anime, and also because this theory is too sad = (  
>I did put in some imaginary flashbacks (they are double bracketed )into this story though-If anyone would like me to turn any of them into full one-shots I am happy to take requests.<strong>

**Anyway , please give me feedback and review =)**


End file.
